Sweet or flavoured lipid-based confections and baked goods additives are well known. For example, the present inventors—or at least one of them—are the inventors in the following United States Patents, all of which relate to lipid-based flake or chip products, or confections, which can be incorporated into baked goods:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,572 Dry Butter-Based Flake Product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,735 Sweet Cinnamon or Other Flavored Fat-Based, and Hydrous Flakes for Bakery Purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,643 Cheese-Based Dry Flake Products and Snack Items and Processes for Producing the Same.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,510 Dry Butter Flake Product Having High Milk Solid Content.
None of the above patents, however, relates to laminated or multi-layered, lipid-based products. Indeed, only U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,735 teaches a confection product which is lipid-based and sugar-based at the same time.
Several attempts by others to manufacture multi-layered lipid-based confections are known to the inventors to have been attempted, but those prior attempts have been not successful, especially on a commercial scale, because they have involved an attempt to create a layered confection by placing one layer of lipid-based formulation over another layer of lipid-based formulation at the same time and at the same station.
The present inventors have quite unexpectedly discovered that they can manufacture striated or ribbon-like, multi-layered confections of lipid-based formulations manufactured on a commercial scale, where any two contiguous layers have at least different colors and may also have different flavours, by placing a first layer at a first station and a second layer at a second station after the first layer has begun to re-crystallize by being passed through a cooling tunnel. What effectively happens is that the first layer has begun to re-crystallize, and its upper surface, as it has been placed on a conveyor belt, is somewhat tacky so that the second layer will adhere to the first layer when it is placed thereon.
Of course, the present invention can be extended to more than two layers, such as to a three or four layer, lipid-based, confection.
One feature of the present invention is that the confections are striated so as to become ribbon-like. Moreover, the width of the first or bottom layer may be slightly less than the width of any subsequent layer which is placed thereon. This accommodates the method and apparatus to be described hereafter, by which the ribbons are formed by being passed under sets of pluralities of fingers, but the width of the fingers may reduce from station to station along the cooling tunnel/conveyor belt assembly. The reason for that is that as the lipid-based formulation of the then currently placed layer is being sheared as it is extruded through the plurality of fingers so as to continue to form the ribbon-like confection, the layer beneath it will already have started to crystallize, and a shearing action along the edge of the ribbon as it is being formed and as it has started to crystallize will be detrimental to the integrity of the structure.
Typically, but not necessarily, at least one of the layers of the multi-layer, laminated, lipid-based confections in keeping with the present invention is formed of chocolate, or is chocolate-based. Other layers, or all of the layers, may otherwise be sweetened lipid-based formulations, all of which typically have a tempering temperature in the range of 40° C. to 90° C., but all of which are substantially solid at room temperature. The solid fat index curve characteristic of the various lipid-based formulations which may be employed in keeping with the present invention may vary as is well known to those skilled in the fat chemistry and chocolate chemistry arts; provided that the formulation is such that it is substantially solid at room temperature and has a tempering temperature in the range of 40° C. to 90° C.
A particular method and apparatus for injecting color, and possibly also flavor, into a lipid-based formulation has been developed by the inventors herein. In any event, at least one of the layers of the multi-layer, lipid-based confection will have a different color, and possibly also a different flavor, than any layer which is contiguous to it.
A typical confection which may be made in keeping with the present invention is one which comprises a chocolate first layer and a second layer which has a distinctive color and flavor that is different than chocolate. For example, the second layer might be based on an orange flavor and color, or it might have a mint flavor and a green color, and so on. Other examples may include a cheese-based first lipid-based layer and a second layer having a citrus or pineapple color and flavor. Another example is when each layer is white, dark, light, or milk chocolate.
However, in each instance, the lipid-based formulation for each layer must be such that it has the room temperature solidity characteristics and tempering characteristics discussed above, and it must also be such that it is relatively viscous so that when it is deposited onto a moving conveyor belt or onto another layer which is already in place on the moving conveyor belt, there is no substantial flow of the lipid-based formulation of that layer then being deposited.
This may be enhanced, in part, by having the moving conveyor belt at a cooled temperature, below that at which the lipid-based formulation is being placed; or by passing the already placed ribbon of lipid-based formulation through a cooling tunnel so as to be at a lower temperature than the temperature of the lipid-based formulation of the next layer to be deposited. As will be noted hereafter, the crosswise cross-section of a ribbon of lipid-based confection of the invention is controlled to some extent by the use of the fingers, and to some extent by controlling its viscosity. Also, in an alternative approach, the lipid-based formulation may be extruded through a series of spaced nozzles.
Typically, a base formulation for the lipid-based formulations in keeping with the present invention may be compound chocolate or white chocolate, having sugar added thereto for the purposes of sweetness.
When one of the layers is such that it is flavored with an aromatic flavoring agent such as orange oils or peppermint oils, and the like, a particularly delightful organoleptic experience for the consumer of the confection may occur. This is because the vapor pressure of the flavoring additives such as orange or peppermint oils, and the like, is lower than the vapor pressure, of say, chocolate, thereby resulting in a more immediate release of the flavor of the second or flavored layer, followed by the release of the chocolate flavor.
A particular feature of the present invention is that the lipid-based formulations for each successive layer are tempered so that there is no crystallization in the formulation at the time that it is dispensed. Also, the lipid-based formulations are sufficiently viscous, as noted, so that no significant lateral flow of the material will occur after it has been dispensed.
It is, of course, possible that both layers of a two-layer lipid-based confection in keeping with the present invention may be based on chocolate—one layer being conventional chocolate, and the other being white chocolate. In that instance, there is a distinctive difference in the colors of the layers, and there may also be at least a discernable difference in the flavors of the layers.